Monday 28 June, 2004 at 9:21PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (2)

We (IceQueen, Altie & myself) went to the famous China Club in Manhattan last night to see Russian rock band 'Chizh and Blues Co' in concert. Really good night. The Band are apparently huge in Russia (like equivalent of going to see Rolling Stones or something here; they usually have audiences of many thousands), but this 'concert' was like a small private type thing with maybe 150 people going hard so everyone was amping. Heaps of Russians there of course. They have a sort of Midge Marsden sound and style for the Kiwis who know Midge, so that should give you some clue what they were like - good.

We met up with Altie at Bryant Park in Manhattan earlier and intended to go to a little restaurant called 'The Nook' in midtown Manhattan that we've been to a couple of times before. Seems it's become somewhat trendy and hence was full, so we headed to another one down the road apiece called, quite simply, 'E'. The food was just ok; I wouldn't rave about it. We did get to sit at a table outside (sort of on the sidewalk) which was nice since, as usual, the temperature was hitting around the 30°C mark.

I went out wearing a new Nautica t-shirt and some funky cargo shorts and sandal type things as it was too hot outside for me to wear anything like 'clubbing clothes' (can't take the Kiwi outta me :P). Didn't know if they'd let me in to the China Club dressed so casual but they did, so I had fun jumping around without overheating all night. The drinks are pretty expensive though, and I know there are clubs in Manhattan a lot more expensive than this one. One heineken for me and a margarita for IceQueen cost US$20 (about NZ$30-35), so it's not so suprising when I hear stories of people spending over $20,000 on a night out in Manhattan. Worth noting though is that they don't bugger around pouring measured nips here, it's all free pour and the drinks are really potent as a result. Fun. I still haven't been drunk since I left NZ over 2½ years ago though.